Meanings of lone motherhood within a broader family context

In this paper, the theoretical approach to the concept of lone motherhood is adopted from ‘new’ family sociology where families are understood to be dynamic processes constituted by webs of relationships. I analyse life stories written by lone mothers in order to examine the meanings that they give to their lone motherhood in relation to their larger family context. This approach reveals that, along with the concept ‘family’, the category ‘lone motherhood’ can be questioned. The life stories show that as with all families, the representations of ‘the lone mother family’ vary. Lone motherhood emerges less as a distinct family form and more as an experience coloured by the lone mother's position in a web of family relationships, as well as her place in her broader personal, social and historical context.     

Effects of Exogenous and Endogenous Distracters on Immediate and Long‐Term Recall in Toddlers

We explored the role that exogenous and endogenous competitors for attention play in infants’ abilities to encode and retain information over a 6‐month period. Sixty‐six children visited the laboratory at 15 months, and 32 returned for a second visit at 21 months. Children observed models of conventional‐ relation and enabling‐relation action sequences. Half the children were distracted by a “Mister Monkey” mechanical toy during the conventional‐relation sequence, while the other half was distracted during the enabling‐relation sequence. The Early Childhood Behavior Questionnaire indexed endogenous factors at both ages. Immediate postmodel production of target actions indexed encoding efficiency, and 6‐month production of target actions indexed long‐term recall. The exogenous distracter impacted encoding efficiency (i.e., immediate recall), but not long‐term recall. Endogenous factors (i.e., temperament) were primarily associated with long‐term recall. Of special interest was our finding that endogenous factors, especially surgency, moderated the effect of the exogenous distracter. It appears that when learning conventional‐relation sequences in the presence of exogenous distracters, surgency mobilizes attentional resources toward the learning objective; however, when learning enabling‐relation sequences under the same conditions, surgency either boosts the saliency of the distracters or boosts children’s susceptibility to them.     

Pricing policies and corporate strategy

In this article, attention is drawn to the importance of pricing in the formulation of corporate strategies. The author compares traditional “cost plus” pricing with market oriented approaches, and argues the case for pricing policies to be given greater emphasis in corporate planning. He examines the role of the corporate planner in developing price strategies for existing products and for new products and recommends the formulation of product strategies based on greater price leverage.     

A randomized controlled trial of the effects of mindfulness practice on doctoral candidate psychological status

Objectives: To examine the impact of guided mindfulness practice on psychological distress and psychological capital (hope, optimism, resilience, and efficacy) in doctoral candidates. Participants: Recruitment of a convenience sample of doctoral candidates occurred in July 2015 and participants were randomly allocated to the control or intervention group (38 and 34 participants completed the trial, respectively). Methods: A single-blinded, randomized controlled trial with intention-to-treat analysis was conducted. The intervention consisted of a daily guided mindfulness practice, using an audio CD. Indicators of psychological distress and psychological capital were measured pre- and post-trial with validated questionnaires. Results: Compared to the control group, the intervention group reported a statistically significantly reduction in depression (p?=?.045) and increased self-efficacy (p?=?.004), hope (p?=?.000), and resilience (p?=?.011). Conclusions: These results highlight the effectiveness of self-administered mindfulness practice on the psychological health of doctoral candidates, and the positive effect on psychological capital is reported as a key finding.     

A Simplified Method of Calculating an Overall Goodness-of-Fit Test for the Cox Proportional Hazards Model

Gronnesby and Borgan (1996) propose an overall goodness-of-fit test for the Cox proportional hazards model. The basis of their test is a grouping of subjects by their estimated risk score. We show that the Gronnesby and Borgan test is algebraically identical to one obtained from adding group indicator variables to the model and testing the hypothesis the coefficients of the group indicator variables are zero via the score test. Thus showing that the test can be calculated using existing software. We demonstrate that the table of observed and estimated expected number of events within each group of the risk score is a useful adjunct to the test to help identify potential problems in fit.     

Examining the Effect of Correctional Programming on Perceptions of Likelihood of Recidivism Among Incarcerated Prisoners

ABSTRACT

For many years, policymakers and criminal justice scholars have debated the impact of correctional programming on recidivism. This debate is currently unresolved. Using data from 1,234 currently incarcerated inmates in a mid-Southern state, this study examines whether inmates who participate in correctional programming while incarcerated are less likely to feel that they will recidivate upon release from prison. The findings from this research suggest that program participation while in prison has little impact on the inmates’ perceived recidivism, although important programming effects may still occur. Policy implications and directions for future research are discussed.     

When the Methodological Shoe is on the Other Foot: African American Interviewer and White Interviewees

Some scholars engaging in the insider/outsider debate have argued that the pairing of researcher and subjects based on racial similarity—i.e., “race matching”—is the most effective means for conducting qualitative research. Although insider/outsider status has been discussed with respect to white researchers' studies of African Americans, I explore the heretofore rarely discussed situation in which an African American is the researcher and whites are the subjects. I argue that insider status with respect to race continues to be based on a presumed connectedness linked to phenotypical characteristics—like skin color or hair texture. Yet, rather than experiencing a solely insider or outsider status, researchers and subjects experience what I call “insider moments” wherein their interests converge and they are able to share in the kinds of interactions that yield important insights. I conclude by evaluating the utility of insider/outsider status in qualitative research.     

Nightlife Girls: Envy,Theatre, and Encounters with Men and Women

This article explores how envy influences affective performance in the service industry. Utilizing the first‐person accounts of 12 women working in one Manhattan bar, it examines how the experiences these women have with male and female customers are differently intersected by expectations for gendered performance. It further explores how envy — as the emotion most prompted in the servers in the face of these expectations — can in response be harnessed as a force for their critical agency. Seeing envy as both an antagonizer and central defence mechanism, the paper goes on to dissect the various strategies employed by the serving women to both adopt the differing embodiments of affective gender performance expected by their male and female customers, and protect themselves from the emotional damage that is risked in adopting such externally dictated subjectivities.